Ribbon Wires

Ribbon cables are usually seen for internal peripherals in computers, such as hard drives,CD drives and floppy drives. On some older computer systems (such as the BBC Micro andApple II series) they were used for external connections as well. Unfortunately the ribbon-like shape interferes with computer cooling by disrupting airflow within the case and also makes the cables awkward to handle, especially when there are a lot of them; round cables have almost entirely replaced ribbon cables for external connections and are increasingly being used internally as well.